Detune

Detune sets two or more sound sources slightly out of tune with each other, and the small pitch difference makes their waveforms drift in and out of phase. That drifting produces a slow beating or chorusing motion that the ear reads as richness and width rather than as wrong notes. A tiny amount of detune adds subtle warmth and life, while larger amounts create the thick, shimmering supersaw sounds central to modern dance music. Detune is the key ingredient in unison, where many stacked voices are spread across a small pitch range. The trade-off is control: too much detune starts to sound genuinely out of tune, so the art is finding the sweet spot where a sound feels big but still in key.